MBTA to test Torture Chamber

MBTA to experiment with nearly seatless subway cars
Welcome to an accident waiting to happen. There are clearly no posts in the center of the train to hold onto. There are times on the red line when you are on a car that has seats, and it is so crowded that you can't grab a hold of a bar if you are near the doors, so.... I can't wait to see how this works.

The joke is that there are going to be surveys seeing if people are still going to willing to ride. It isn't about being willing to ride or not, a lot of people don't even have a choice. I think it is such a joke that the government can force a small business to close because they don't have a handicap accessible ramp or elevator, but then turn around and concoct an abomination such as this.

My mother, who isn't elderly, fell down on a train this summer and seriously injured her back because she was slow to react.

The comments section after the article I linked to is great. 1 out of 10 people actually support the idea, but they are totally missing the point of the complaints. They say to the people who want to run more cars that it is an impossibility. Try again, the MBTA can't make trains longer due to station constraints, but they can run more trains and increase the frequency at which they arrive in stations. Secondly, yes, they added more bars to hold onto, as is evidenced by the window bar in the picture, however, this is NOT where they are needed. many NYC trains have a centrally located post in the intersection of doorways, not only would it be wise to include those on all red line trains, but these central posts must be installed if they are even going to ponder removing any seats.

It really makes me wonder if they even hired an engineer or if some brilliant T work just came up with the idea and got out a screw driver. Come ON!!!

I had supper at Kate's tonight, we pigged out on tacos, nachos, and topped it off with a brownie sundae for desert. Can't beat that! The weekend is almost here!

Candidate for Museum of Bad Art

Quite a while ago (This Summer?) I had purchased a stretched canvas upon which I was going to create an abstract masterpiece. After painting the background the wrong color and abandoning the project for months I pretty much half-assed (according to spell check assed is not a word) it and completed a much simpler, cruder, and somewhat unsatisfactory design. I debated on working on it more, repainting etc, and perhaps I will, but since my turn over is incredibly slow I just decided to go ahead and hang it up anyway. I even went out of my way to buy a kit at the craft store last night so I could get it up on the wall. Perhaps if I see this lack luster dud every day I'll rise to the occasion and try something new. Now I have to find a spot for the photo of barren trees which used to occupy the spot (something I found in a discount prints bin at Michael's a few years back). It was too small for the former location anyway.

Interestingly there seems to be something about the squiggly lined patterns I made that reflects my penmanship. Kate joked once that we could paint abstract designs representing each other's personality. Perhaps inadvertently I painted my own personality. I think the only reason I ultimately put it up was that it matched some of the accents in my futon, and I thought it was at least as good as half the crap they do on TLC in those shows like trading spaces.

So Long Sling!

My Dr. visit was a quick one. The doctor asked me if my arm seemed more stable, I said yes. I was then handed new instructions for physical therapy, told to toss the sling, and sent on my way. Probably taking the entire day off was a bit unnecessary, but it was a nice extension to my vacation. I headed to Burlington to start some of the Christmas shopping I neglected over the weekend.

My other accomplishment was putting up the jigsaw puzzle that Kate bought for me while I was recovering from my surgery. It took me several attempts to get this photo to come out with out the glare, while remaining focused. It seems my camera always is more sensitive to slight movement when the flash is off. I finally used the refrigerator door as my "tripod" and angled the camera up with the flash on.

Tomorrow it is back to the grind. Of course I should be thankful that I have work for the time being, because who knows what may happen in this economy.